Bernie hurt himself in the debate.

[Virginiá]

Lol ok "Clinton 2016".

Uh, by your logic your post is equally as irrelevant based on your giant Sanders signature

I think the issue has been "spun" by Clinton. As Sanders pointed out Clinton ran against Obama in 2008.

I thought about this, but while it makes for a nice sound bite, it's not a good comeback logic-wise. A great deal of Democrats didn't support Obama at first, including African Americans. They did after they got to know him and more so after seeing his presidency in action. Likewise, Clinton didn't know him or what his presidency would be like until after. And surely she knows as she went to work with her primary rival.

So the difference here is Sanders is, you could say, "running against Obama" after 8 years of him in office. It's completely different.

However, I do have to say I still think a primary candidate should be able to offer some criticism of their party's sitting president if it is warranted.

[Virginiá]

Yes, but by March, she had gone full-on raging banshee mode. Even if she didn't set out to oppose Obama, she mercilessly attacked him.

Right, but that's still not the point. Clinton, along with basically everyone else, had no idea if Obama would be a great president, a good president, or an absolutely terrible president. Now we know. Sanders response is formed to give the impression that Clinton knew all that and mercilessly ran against him anyway.

At any rate, if he wants to frame it that way, then the voters can decide whether or not Sanders' criticism is warranted or not, as is the point of this whole shindig.

[Virginiá]

I was against the War in Iraq too, but that doesn't qualify me to be President. Lots of people opposed it, but it doesn't qualify them to be President.

Obviously a single mistaken vote based on false evidence is the new litmus test for POTUS, even if the alternative is a guy who appears to know, and seemingly has a desire to know virtually nothing about foreign affairs.

[Virginiá]

Let's all agree that Bernie's knowledge of foreign affairs is clearly weaker than Hillary's, which is not a great thing, because knowledge is important.

But, as his campaign argues (I believe quite logically), knowledge is less important than judgment.  Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld have between them like eight decades of foreign affairs experience and knowledge, yet have abysmal judgement guided by an underlying bankrupt ideology that makes them horrible people to put in charge of foreign affairs.  I have no doubt that I'd prefer Stephen Colbert to be my Secretary of Defense over those guys, because he would be inept and slow but would have some sort of conscience when he actually did finish processing all of the relevant information.

Of course, Hillary is no Dick Cheney, and the calculus of experience vs judgment is a lot closer between them, because Hillary has gotten a fair amount of stuff right.  But I unabashedly value judgment and underlying worldview as the proximate characteristic from which good foreign policy flows.

You have some fair points there. I just get peeved when people, and Sanders even, act like one mistaken vote makes her unfit for that office. Especially when Sanders, who has had a lot of time to seriously educate himself on foreign affairs, seems to have done little of that, yet wants to take the top job of foreign affairs. It's insanely reckless. Hillary does her homework and has put in a lot of work with those things, while Sanders just tries to change the subject.

I actually do think Sanders would be a better choice IF he knew a lot more about FP, considering Hillary is somewhat hawkish and I really don't like that... But Sanders in charge of America's relations makes me a bit worrisome. I think he's great with a lot of things, but perhaps not international relations.

[Virginiá]

In the end, that's true.  Obama is the Ronald Reagan of today's Democrats progressives; an iconic figure.  Bernie's beyond progressive; he's a "democratic socialist" who's never run for office as a Democrat until now.    

I would say Sanders has potential to be transformative for Millennials/GenZ. Young people absolutely love the guy, and based on polls so far, he looks to be the only candidate in the entire race who can pull in perhaps better margins among Millennials / < 40yr olds than Obama did in 2008 (66% among 18-29yr olds). On the flip side, he doesn't seem to be as appealing to people over 40, and even less appealing to the 60+ age group.

Still, though, just him running a strong primary campaign is already helping to lock in young people to his vision of America.